Optimal Transport Theory for Cell Association in UAV-Enabled Cellular Networks

In this paper, a novel framework for delay-optimal cell association in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled cellular networks is proposed. In particular, to minimize the average network delay under any arbitrary spatial distribution of the ground users, the optimal cell partitions of UAVs and terrestrial base stations (BSs) are determined. To this end, using the powerful mathematical tools of optimal transport theory, the existence of the solution to the optimal cell association problem is proved and the solution space is completely characterized. The analytical and simulation results show that the proposed approach yields substantial improvements of the average network delay.Comment: Accepted in IEEE Communications Letter

Minimum Cost Design of Cellular Networks in Rural Areas with UAVs, Optical Rings, Solar Panels and Batteries

Bringing the cellular connectivity in rural zones is a big challenge, due to the large installation costs that are incurred when a legacy cellular network based on fixed Base Stations (BSs) is deployed. To tackle this aspect, we consider an alternative architecture composed of UAV-based BSs to provide cellular coverage, ground sites to connect the UAVs with the rest of the network, Solar Panels (SPs) and batteries to recharge the UAVs and to power the ground sites, and a ring of optical fiber links to connect the installed sites. We then target the minimization of the installation costs for the considered UAV-based cellular architecture, by taking into account the constraints of UAVs coverage, SPs energy consumption, levels of the batteries and the deployment of the optical ring. After providing the problem formulation, we derive an innovative methodology to ensure that a single ring of installed optical fibers is deployed. Moreover, we propose a new algorithm, called DIARIZE, to practically tackle the problem. Our results, obtained over a set of representative rural scenarios, show that DIARIZE performs very close to the optimal solution, and in general outperforms a reference design based on fixed BSs